Sunday, February 26, 2012

Super Kmart in Mentor, Ohio

This is a currently operating Super Kmart Center store at 9200 Mentor Avenue in Mentor, Ohio. This is one of only 25 Super Kmart stores still in operation. At 195,529 square feet this store is the second largest Super Kmart that is still open; second only to the Lorain, Ohio store. I noticed this store has better space management than many of the Kmart stores I have been in. In other stores some of the front service areas and the auto centers are vacant. Here at this store they have all the service areas up front filled and the former Auto Center is home to a privately operated service center called Mentor Complete Car Care.

The front of the store is filled with various places like Indians and Browns team shops plus a nail salon. Also, there is a bike shop in the old Florist area. I feel the store would do better in Mentor if it received a Little Caesar's Pizza Station and improved curb appeal. The grocery section is not updated, but there are plans to update it in the future. The store retains most of the look it had when it opened in the early to mid 1990s.
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Enjoy the photos

Photos from February 16th, 2012

The storefront at night

The RadAir service center (this is now Mentor Complete Car Care)

The Garden Center

Photos from December 27th, 2012

Auto Center

Auto Center

Garden Center

Garden Center

General merchandise entrance

Storefront

1990s cart corral

Grocery entrance

Grocery side storefront

Super Kmart Cafe exterior

old Super Kmart Cafe interior

old Super Kmart Cafe interior

old Super Kmart Cafe interior

looking towards the old Super Kmart Cafe

Bakery and Deli

Bakery

Bakery and Deli

Frozen foods

Produce

Meats and closed-off Seafood service counter

Closed-off Seafood service counter

Frozen foods and Dairy

Pre-packaged Deli items

Meat

Groceries

Snack aisle

Pharmacy

Clothing

Indians and Browns Team-shops

General merchandise

I cannot figure out what was here originally

Garden Center

Garden Center

Garden Center

Furniture

Auto Center

Auto Center

Auto Center

Auto Center

Layaway and Sporting Goods

Facing towards the front of the store

Clothing

Electronics

seven or eight checkouts were open.

Bike Shop with Pepsi signage in the old Florist section

Video Arcade and some plants

Appliances

Mattresses

Price Scanner

Fitting Rooms

Jewelry

Super Kmart Portrait Studio

old Florist fridges

Floral signage is visible behind the Bike Shop sign

Carts lined up along front of store
(Really, they need this many extra carts?)

A nearby Speedway gas station advertising the partnership between Super Kmart and Speedway.

The store is lame to shop in when they have sales on items they do not put a lot of the sale items out so by the time you get there they are already gone. The food section is still the original look after they opened in the 90's and closed the BigK down the street.

I am from Canada and I was just in this very same Kmart in Mentor last week (March 21st 2015). It was sad to see the nice glassed in area where the restaurant once was. The Kmart in Lorain Ohio is virtually the same layout. The cashier who had worked at Kmart for 40 years said that the Lorain store was a really "booming" Kmart since so many in the area had closed. So sad and nothing really "Booming" about it. I would not be surprised if these two Super Kmarts are gone a year from now. I really do like Kmarts. Now in Canada all we have are Walmarts-not good at all. Sarah ,Ontario Canada

From my understanding many of the Northeastern Ohio Meijer stores have a planned opening date of late Spring / Summer 2017. This is just part of the first wave of proposed Meijer openings and makes up stores in Avon, Bainbridge/Aurora(ex-Geauga Lake parking lot site), North Canton, Stow/Kent, and the two currently operating Super Kmart stores in Mentor and Lorain. Meijer is already planning out a second wave of openings right now for 2018 /2019 (they will open more around Cleveland and expand out to the Youngstown area in that wave) so they seem committed to opening in Northeastern Ohio this time around...

That said, in order for the Mentor and Lorain stores to meet the deadline to be open as Meijer in Late Spring / Summer 2017 the Super Kmart will have to be closed for at least six months beforehand to allow Meijer to renovate the stores into Meijer. That would put the closing of the Super Kmart stores sometime around Christmas shopping season in 2016 at the latest. The ground-up stores Meijer is planning are going to take 12 months each to build and construction on those are scheduled to start in Spring 2016. Since the Super Kmart buildings are already built, it will take less time to turn them into a Meijer (about six months as mentioned before). It also takes about three months to close down a Super Kmart. So the start of liquidation should be sometime around June, July, or August and the stores should be empty by the late fall / Christmas shopping season.

I went to this same store Dec 3rd 2015 to buy a washer and dryer on sale.. after 2 hours in the store with my 80 year old mother that can hardly walk and only 1 power scooter working and in use by another customer...they still could not take cash for a web site sale and even after putting the 1800.00 on a card and wasting another hour in store a second day they still could not make the sale because they could not find the SKU numbers to ring them up with. Even after calling Sears which they own they still could not get SKU numbers. So I went home to do it online because Kmart sent me an email telling me I still had items in my cart that they saved for me. BUT Kmart cleared my cart and the sale prices were gone. I am still waiting to this day for Corp to tell the managers if they will honor the 799.99 ea sale prices or make me pay over 1200.00 for washer and 1400.00 for the dryer off sale prices. Very sad when a company can't get numbers for their own sales items and take 1800.00 CASH in hand. FGS ( For Gods Sake ) they own Sears and should have every item number in their files for both stores.. esp when they have the items on the Kmart web site for sale. I worked at Kmart Auto Service Center in Eastlake Ohio in early 90's and Kmart still stinks then and now...Ever since they threw out Old Man S.S Kresge's original customer and employee care rules handbook in late 80's early 90's Kmart has been going down hill fast.. All of them. Forgive this mess above.. I can't type well when I'm pissed

Looks like this will be the last remaining Kmart Super Center. The rest of the remaining Kmart Super Center stores are on the closing list released this week. I am too far away to visit these stores, but hopefully you or one of the blog readers can photograph these stores once again before they are gone.

And then there was one...Super Kmart in existence. After the announcement of the Mentor store closing, Warren OH will be the only Super Kmart left in existence. Soon enough, Warren will close as well. Both properties are scheduled to become a Meijer store.

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